Pietta 1863 Starr Single Action

About the Pietta 1863 Starr Single Action

The Pietta 1863 Starr Single Action is a modern black-powder reproduction revolver produced by F.lli Pietta of Italy, faithfully recreating the Starr Model 1863 Army revolver of the American Civil War. It is a six-shot .44 caliber cap-and-ball percussion revolver with a single-action lockwork, a distinctive two-piece steel frame, an 8-inch barrel, and single-piece walnut grips. The original Starr 1863 was a simplified single-action version of the earlier Starr double-action Army, adopted by the Union Army to lower cost, and this reproduction is prized by re-enactors and black-powder shooters.

The Starr 1863 Single Action was born of wartime economy: the U.S. Ordnance Department asked Starr Arms to strip the complexity and cost out of its double-action Model 1858 Army, producing a simpler single-action revolver that became one of the more numerous Union sidearms of the Civil War.

Pietta 1863 Starr Single Action specifications

The historic Starr Model 1863 was developed after the U.S. Army requested a cheaper single-action alternative to Starr's double-action Model 1858 Army; roughly 25,000 of the 1863 single-action model were delivered to the Union Army. The Pietta reproduction is often classified as an antique-type firearm under U.S. law because it uses cap-and-ball percussion ignition.